The medical parent: identity formation and community building among parents of medically fragile children in Newfoundland and Labrador

Richards, Amie F. (2023) The medical parent: identity formation and community building among parents of medically fragile children in Newfoundland and Labrador. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This thesis is about the experiences of parents of medically-fragile children. Through a symbolic interactionist lens, I interviewed parents of medically-fragile children in Newfoundland and Labrador using open-ended, qualitative research methods to ascertain how they framed their lived experiences. My data revealed that these parents developed a “medical parent” identity through their interactions with others, and this identity was the lens through which they filtered and interacted with the world. These parents engaged with temporality, boundary work, normalization, and medical knowledge as part of their everyday parenting experiences. My data showed that these parents engage with 13 identifiable hazards as part of performing the medical parent identity, which overlaps and correlates with each other.

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